From needles and paint to non-recyclable plastics, people accumulate all sorts of things that can't be safely disposed of or shouldn't end up in the landfill.
It can be challenging to figure out what to do with those items on your own.
Priscilla Dioquino gets it. She’s the voice on the other end of the busy Waste Free SD hotline, answering thousands of calls every year from people all over San Diego County.
“It is really rewarding to think that these people are going to be doing the correct thing and bringing (unwanted waste) to a household hazardous waste facility that I can tell them about, making them appointments or just telling them what options they have,” said Dioquino, who has been working the hotline for the past four years.
She typically searches a public database on the nonprofit’s website and lets callers know where and how to dispose of their unwanted waste. The nonprofit I Love A Clean San Diego maintains information on over 1,700 recycling, disposal and donation centers to run the hotline with support from the county and several cities.
The hotline launched in 1972, according to the nonprofit. The first calls were about Christmas tree recycling and 20 years ago, the top call was about phone book recycling. The reasons for the calls have evolved over the years, said Steve Morris, the organization’s executive director.
“What we’ve learned about waste in our 70-plus years is it has become more complicated in 2026,” he said. “If you think about the 1950s and 60s, materials that you purchased were primarily made of a few things: tin, aluminum, a little bit of paper. There really wasn't a lot of single-use plastic items. And obviously in 2026, there's any number of single-use things that are very nuanced.”
Now, most calls are about household hazardous items, with top inquiries about needles, batteries, paint and used motor oil, according to the organization. The hotline has been averaging about 4,000 calls annually.
Some questions have caught Dioquino off guard.
“I remember one of my first weeks working here, I had a person call asking if they could recycle a bowling ball,” she said. “Unfortunately, it has too many different types of plastics on it. I’ve had questions about human hair, if that could go into the organics bin, and I was surprised to find out it can. And you can put pet fur in there as well.”
On a recent Wednesday, a caller living in an unincorporated area of the county asked about disposing of liquor.
“They didn’t want to put it down their drain because they're on septic and it could damage the microbe system,” she said. “So, I had to check (with the county) if they take that household hazardous waste because that’s like an unusual request. And they do.”
Operators also get questions about recycling center locations and rules around composting and organics.
Morris said helping residents, as well as businesses, find hassle-free options for their unwanted waste has become more important today as California’s recycling and organics laws have expanded over the past several years.
“If you call the hotline today, you're going to get a different answer in a couple of weeks, because maybe a new resource became available,” he said. “Maybe there's a new law out there and they really kind of counsel everybody on what's up to date.”
In recent years, the nonprofit said it has helped keep tens of thousands of items out of crowded landfills, which are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions.
For Dioquino, reducing waste is a lifestyle and she wanted to earn a living helping others do the same.
“I really liked this organization and I was like, these are my people. I really want to work here,” she said.
If you have waste disposal questions, visit wastefreesd.org.
